Carbonitrides are used to form coatings on the surface of metal tools mainly in order to improve mechanical properties, in particular abrasion resistance and chipping properties. Continuous research has been carried out with a view toward developing compositions giving better properties such as mechanical stability.
Not only in tools, the application of carbonitrides is expected in electronic materials because of their excellent electron conductivity and thermal stability.
In a known process for the production of carbonitrides as described in Patent Literature 1, carbonitride is directly deposited on the surface of a metal. However, it is difficult according to this process that the carbonitride is obtained as powder. Processing such carbonitrides to different shapes in later steps is difficult.
Patent Literature 2 has developed a method for synthesizing carbonitride as particles. However, the particles obtained are large with the minimum size being approximately 1 μm and cannot be used for catalysts or electronic materials requiring miniaturization.
Patent Literature 3 discloses a process of producing aluminum oxide nanoparticles by a laser pyrolysis method. However, the reference is silent with respect to the production of carbonitride mixture particles or oxycarbonitride mixture particles of Group IV or V transition metals.